Statement from Congressman Mike Honda Honoring the Life of Former California Assemblyman Nao Takasugi

Today, I honor the life and achievements of my dear friend, former California State Assemblymember Nao Takasugi. Nao dedicated his life to public service with humility, integrity, and commitment to the American ideals of equality and justice.

Nao was a 19-year-old student at the University of California, Los Angeles, when he and his family were incarcerated in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

His family was forced to sell most of their possessions, but was able to keep the family store, the Asahi Market in downtown Oxnard, which they had owned since 1907.

The Takasugi family was able to save the store during their imprisonment by entrusting the family business to a Mexican American employee, Ignacio Carmona. When the Takasugi family returned to Oxnard in 1945, Mr. Carmona returned the business back to the Takasugis, after faithfully carrying on the business for three years.

In 1943, Nao was among approximately 4,000 Japanese American college students who were released from the internment camps and allowed to attend college on the East Coast. Nao earned his business administration degree at Temple University in Philadelphia and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. When he returned to Oxnard, he ran his family’s Asahi Market.

His family’s imprisonment inspired him to commit his life to strengthening our democracy in public service, and did not cause deep embitterment. As Oxnard City Councilman, Mayor, and then California State Assemblyman, he ably represented all of his diverse constituents, crossing racial and ethnic divides, and building bridges across party lines.

At the age of 87, Nao died of complications from a stroke on November 19, 2009. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Judy, and their five children, Scott, Russell, Ron, Tricia and Lea.

I was truly saddened by the loss of my dear friend Nao Takasugi. He was a gentle soul, and never let his kind demeanor get in the way of his strong beliefs about justice and civil rights. When he spoke, people listened as he was always true to his convictions and sense of honor. I will miss him dearly and will always reflect on his life as a metric of how I should conduct my own.


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CAPAC celebrates Senate confirmation of Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to Serve as Article III Judge

By Rep. Mike Honda
Chair
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

Today, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) applauds the U.S. Senate for confirming Judge Jacqueline Nguyen as a federal district judge in the Central District of California. CAPAC is proud to have supported Judge Nguyen through her confirmation process. She will be our nation’s first Vietnamese American to serve as an Article III judge.

For the past seven years, Judge Nguyen served on the Los Angeles Superior Court. Prior to that, she was a federal prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and served as the Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section. She attended Occidental College and the UCLA School of Law. As a child, along with her family, she escaped the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.

I congratulate President Obama on his commitment to ensuring diversity of the federal bench, and thank him for choosing talented Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) jurists of the highest caliber for the federal bench. In addition to Judge Nguyen, President Obama has nominated Judge Denny Chin for an appellate judgeship on the Second Circuit, Edward Chen as a district judge in the Northern District of California, and Dolly Gee as a district judge in the Central District of California.

Judge Nguyen’s confirmation is an important milestone for AAPIs, as the community is sorely underrepresented on the federal bench. Currently, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up less than 1% of federal judges.


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